Apex Magazine is an online short fiction zine of fantastical literature. TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial by Jason Sizemore ORIGINAL FICTION Root Rot by Fargo Tbakhi Your Own Undoing by P H Lee Love, That Hungry Thing by Cassandra Khaw Mr. Death by Alix E. Harrow The Niddah by Elana Gomel Gray Skies, Red Wings, Blue Lips, Black Hearts by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor HOLIDAY HORRORS FLASH FICTION WINNER All I Want for Christmas by Charles Payseur CLASSIC FICTION The Ace of Knives by Tonya Liburd Roots on Ya by LH Moore INTERVIEWS Interview with Author Fargo Tbakhi by Andrea Johnson Interview with Author P H Lee by Andrea Johnson Interview with Cover Artist Vicki Be Wicked by Russell Dickerson NONFICTION Story-less: A Forethought by Usman T. Malik Trapped in Stories by Malka Older Words for Thought: Short Fiction Review by AC Wise

Our largest book to date! With stories by Alix E. Harrow, Sam J. Miller, Sheree Renée Thomas, Cassandra Khaw, and many more, Apex Magazine 2021 is a collection of darkly beautiful tales appearing originally in Apex Magazine January-December 2021. From a spaceship in the far-flung reaches of space to a cozy living room where a detective interviews a killer, this anthology explores the good and the ugly. It dissects what makes us human versus what makes us monsters. Within these pages, you will meet a golem that doesn’t know how to save its family, a group of robots debating whether they are alive, and a woman striving for that social media-perfect life. From parasitic twins to a hospital dreamscape, to a town full of people wearing masks, this anthology will take you on journeys you never could have expected. Come with us and discover the 48 surreal, strange, shocking, and beautiful stories in Apex Magazine 2021. Table of Contents “Root Rot” — Fargo Tbakhi “Your Own Undoing” — P H Lee “Love, That Hungry Thing” — Cassandra Khaw “Mr. Death” — Alix E. Harrow “The Niddah” — Elana Gomel “All I Want for Christmas” — Charles Payseur “Gray Skies, Red Wings, Blue Lips, Black Hearts” — Merc Fenn Wolfmoor “Barefoot and Midnight” — Sheree Renée Thomas “The Amazing Exploding Women of the Early Twentieth Century” — A.C. Wise “Black Box of the Terraworms” — Barton Aikman “If Those Ragged Feet Won’t Run” — Annie Neugebauer “A Love That Burns Hot Enough to Last: Deleted Scenes From a Documentary” — Sam J. Miller “The Life and Death of Mia Fremont: An Interview with a Killer” — A.K. Hudson “This Is the Moment, Or One of Them” — Mari Ness “Throw Rug” — Aurelius Raines II “Mishpokhe and Ash” — Sydney Rossman-Reich “All This Darkness” — Jennifer R. Donohue “DEMON FIGHTER SUCKS” — Katherine Crighton “Eilam Is Forever” — Beth Dawkins “Without Wishes to Bind You” — E. Catherine Tobler “How to be Good” — R. Gatwood “Osu” — Kingsley Okpii “Survival, After” — Nicole J. LeBoeuf “What Sisters Take” — Kelly Sandoval “Cottonmouth” — Joelle Wellington “Next to Cleanliness” — Rose Keating “Discontinuity” — Jared Millet “Candyland” — Maggie Slater “Gift for the Cutter Man” — D. Thomas Minton “Wake Up, I Miss You” — Rachel Swirsky “Security Breach at Sugar Pine Suites” — Pamela Rentz “Happy Trails” — Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. “Marked by Bears” — Jessie Loyer “Spirits of the Broken Lands” — Kevin Wabaunsee “When Evening Arrives” — Tiffany Morris “An Incident at Hellpoint Prime” — Norris Black “To Seek Himself Again” — Marie Croke “This Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief” — Izzy Wasserstein “In Haskins” — Carson Winter “Whose Mortal Taste” — Erin K. Wagner “Hank in the South Dakota Sun” — Stephanie Kraner “I Call Upon the Night as Witness” — Zahra Mukhi “Soil of Our Home, Storm of Our Lives” — Renan Bernardo “Robin’s Last Song” — Nina Munteanu “Godmother” — Cheryl S. Ntumy “The synchronism of touch” — Gabriela Damián Miravete “Dreamports” — Tlotlo Tsamaase “Samsāra in a Teacup” — Lavanya Lakshminarayan

Apex Magazine publishes genre short fiction, nonfiction, interviews, and reviews. Our short fiction has won many of the genre's top literary awards including the Hugo and Nebula Awards. We publish bi-monthly. Apex Magazine Promo 2020 is a special mini-issue to promote the relaunch of the magazine proper (coming in January, 2021). This mini-issue contains two original works and a round table discussion with our hardworking slush reader team. TABLE OF CONTENTS SHORT FICTION The Legacy of Alexandria by Maurice Broaddus Small Hopes and Dreams by Beth Dawkins NONFICTION A Round Table Discussion with the Apex Magazine Slush Team by Lesley Conner

Strange. Beautiful. Shocking. Surreal. APEX MAGAZINE is a digital dark science fiction and fantasy genre zine that features award-winning short fiction, essays, and interviews. Established in 2009, our fiction has won several Hugo and Nebula Awards. We publish every other month. Issue 129 contains the following short stories, essays, reviews, and interviews. EDITORIAL Editorial by Jason Sizemore ORIGINAL FICTION It Happened in 'Loontown by Lavie Tidhar City Lights by Yilun Fan (translated by S. Qiouyi Lu) Sheri, At This Very Moment by Bianca Sayan What Una Loves by Rich Larson Lamia by Cristina Jurado (translated by Monica Louzon) The Cure for Loneliness by M. Shaw CLASSIC FICTION O2 Arena by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki That Rough-Hewn Sun by Benjanun Sriduangkaew NONFICTION Tie Me to the Mast (Metaphorically Speaking): Social Writing in the Age of the Pandemic by C.S.E. Cooney The Importance of Presenting Disabilities in Literature by Mercedes M. Yardley REVIEWS Words for Thought: Short Fiction Review by A.C. Wise Book Review: Black Chain by Dominic Martell (reviewed by Keturah Barchers) Book Review: Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn (reviewed by Tracy Robinson) INTERVIEWS Interview with Author M. Shaw by Marissa van Uden Interview with Author Bianca Sayan by Rebecca E. Treasure Interview with Cover Artist Luka Brico by Russell Dickerson

Strange. Surreal. Shocking. Beautiful. APEX MAGAZINE is a digital dark science fiction and fantasy genre zine that features award-winning short fiction, essays, and interviews. Established in 2009, our fiction has won several Hugo and Nebula Awards. We publish every other month. Issue 139 contains the following short stories, essays, reviews, and interviews. EDITORIAL Musings from Maryland by Lesley Conner ORIGINAL SHORT FICTION The Monster Fucker Club by A.V. Greene Dolly Girl by Christopher Rowe Island Circus by Amal Singh But I Loved You by Sachiko Ragosta The Discarded Ones by Linda Niehoff The Magazine of Horror by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki FLASH FICTION Gim of P by Benjamin DeHaan You and Me and The End by Mona West CLASSIC FICTION A Young Zombie in Crisis by Walidah Imarisha You Without Me by Endria Isa Richardson NONFICTION Outside of Language: Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal by Andrea Johnson Renfield: Blood is the Life (But Only If Necessary) by Rick Hipson INTERVIEWS Interview with Author A.V. Greene by Marissa van Uden Interview with Author Sachiko Ragosta by Marissa van Uden Interview with Artist Lauren Raye Snow by Bradley Powers

This anthology collects some of the best original short fiction published in Apex Magazine in its first six years. The stories include our numerous award-nominated works, our readers' Story of the Year selections, and personal favorites chosen by Apex Magazine editor-in-chief Jason Sizemore and managing editor Lesley Conner. TABLE OF CONTENTS Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon Going Endo by Rich Larson Candy Girl by Chikodili Emelumadu If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky Advertising at the End of the World Keffy R.M. Kehrli The Performance Artist by Lettie Prell A Matter of Shapespace by Brian Trent Falling Leaves by Liz Argall Blood from Stone by Alethea Kontis Sexagesimal by Katharine E.K. Duckett Keep Talking by Marie Vibbert Remembery Day by Sarah Pinsker Blood on Beacon Hill by Russell Nichols The Green Book by Amal El-Mohtar L’esprit de L’escalier by Peter M. Ball Still Life (A Sexagesimal Fairy Tale) by Ian Tregillis Build a Dolly by Ken Liu Multo by Samuel Marzioli Armless Maidens of the American West by Genevieve Valentine Pocosin by Ursula Vernon She Gave Her Heart, He Took Her Marrow by Sam Fleming Also includes a foreword by Jason Sizemore and afterword by Lesley Conner.

In the town of Danvers, Massachusetts, home of the original 1692 witch trials, the 1989 Danvers Falcons will do anything to make it to the state finals—even if it means tapping into some devilishly dark powers. Against a background of irresistible 1980s iconography, Quan Barry expertly weaves together the individual and collective progress of this enchanted team as they storm their way through an unforgettable season. Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the infamous Salem accuser Ann Putnam) and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza (whose bleached blond “Claw” sees and knows all), the Falcons prove to be wily, original, and bold, flaunting society’s stale notions of femininity. Through the crucible of team sport and, more importantly, friendship, this comic tour de female force chronicles Barry’s glorious cast of characters as they charge past every obstacle on the path to finding their glorious true selves.

"Taut and elegant, carefully introspected and thoughtfully explored."—The New York Times From Hugo award-winning author Sarah Pinsker comes a novel about one family and the technology that divides them. Everybody's getting one. Val and Julie just want what’s best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when teenage son David comes home one day asking for a Pilot, a new brain implant to help with school, they reluctantly agree. This is the future, after all. Soon, Julie feels mounting pressure at work to get a Pilot to keep pace with her colleagues, leaving Val and Sophie part of the shrinking minority of people without the device. Before long, the implications are clear, for the family and society: get a Pilot or get left behind. With government subsidies and no downside, why would anyone refuse? And how do you stop a technology once it's everywhere? Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot's powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most.

Kirkus' Best Fiction of 2017 From New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow, an epic tale of revolution, love, post-scarcity, and the end of death. "Walkaway is now the best contemporary example I know of, its utopia glimpsed after fascinatingly-extrapolated revolutionary struggle." —William Gibson Hubert Vernon Rudolph Clayton Irving Wilson Alva Anton Jeff Harley Timothy Curtis Cleveland Cecil Ollie Edmund Eli Wiley Marvin Ellis Espinoza—known to his friends as Hubert, Etc—was too old to be at that Communist party. But after watching the breakdown of modern society, he really has no where left to be—except amongst the dregs of disaffected youth who party all night and heap scorn on the sheep they see on the morning commute. After falling in with Natalie, an ultra-rich heiress trying to escape the clutches of her repressive father, the two decide to give up fully on formal society—and walk away. After all, now that anyone can design and print the basic necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter—from a computer, there seems to be little reason to toil within the system. It’s still a dangerous world out there, the empty lands wrecked by climate change, dead cities hollowed out by industrial flight, shadows hiding predators animal and human alike. Still, when the initial pioneer walkaways flourish, more people join them. Then the walkaways discover the one thing the ultra-rich have never been able to buy: how to beat death. Now it’s war – a war that will turn the world upside down. Fascinating, moving, and darkly humorous, Walkaway is a multi-generation SF thriller about the wrenching changes of the next hundred years...and the very human people who will live their consequences. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Perhaps the best-kept secret in the publishing industry is that many publishers--both periodical publishers and book publishers--make available writer's guidelines to assist would-be contributors. Written by the staff at each publishing house, these guidelines help writers target their submissions to the exact needs of the individual publisher. ""The American Directory of Writer's Guidelines"" is a compilation of the actual writer's guidelines for more than 1,700 publishers. A one-of-a-kind source to browse for article, short story, poetry and book ideas.